Number fluctuation dynamics of atomic spin mixing inside a condensate

Efficient Generation of Many-Body Entangled States by Multilevel Oscillations

We generate high-fidelity massively entangled states in an antiferromagnetic spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) by utilizing multilevel oscillations. Combining the multilevel oscillations with additional adiabatic drives, we greatly shorten the necessary evolution time and relax the requirement on the control accuracy of quadratic Zeeman splitting, from microgauss to milligauss, for a ^{23}Na spinor BEC. The achieved high fidelities over 96% show that two kinds of massively entangled states, the many-body singlet state and the twin-Fock state, are almost perfectly generated. The generalized spin squeezing parameter drops to a value far below the standard quantum limit even with the presence of atom number fluctuations and stray magnetic fields, illustrating the robustness of our protocol under real experimental conditions. The generated many-body entangled states can be employed to achieve the Heisenberg-limit quantum precision measurement and to attack nonclassical problems in quantum information science.

Phase diagram and spin mixing dynamics in spinor condensates with a microwave dressing field

Spinor condensates immersed in a microwave dressing field, which access both negative and positive values of the net quadratic Zeeman effect, have been realized in a recent experiment. In this report, we study the ground state properties of a spinor condensate with a microwave dressing field which enables us to access both negative and positive values of quadratic Zeeman energy. The ground state exhibits three different phases by varying the magnetization and the net quadratic Zeeman energy for both cases of ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic interactions. We investigate the atomic-number fluctuations of the ground state and show that the hyperfine state displays super-Poissonian and sub-Poissonian distributions in the different phases. We also discuss the dynamical properties and show that the separatrix has a remarkable relation to the magnetization.

Number fluctuations and energy dissipation in sodium spinor condensates

We characterize fluctuations in atom number and spin populations in F=1 sodium spinor condensates. We find that the fluctuations enable a quantitative measure of energy dissipation in the condensate. The time evolution of the population fluctuations shows a maximum. We interpret this as evidence of a dissipation-driven separatrix crossing in phase space. For a given initial state, the critical time to the separatrix crossing is found to depend exponentially on the magnetic field and linearly on condensate density. This crossing is confirmed by tracking the energy of the spinor condensate as well as by Faraday rotation spectroscopy. We also introduce a phenomenological model that describes the observed dissipation with a single coefficient.

Quantum phase transitions and continuous observation of spinor dynamics in an antiferromagnetic condensate

Condensates of spin-1 sodium display rich spin dynamics due to the antiferromagnetic nature of the interactions in this system. We use Faraday rotation spectroscopy to make a continuous and minimally destructive measurement of the dynamics over multiple spin oscillations on a single evolving condensate. This method provides a sharp signature to locate a magnetically tuned separatrix in phase space which depends on the net magnetization. We also observe a phase transition from a two- to a three-component condensate at a low but finite temperature using a Stern-Gerlach imaging technique. This transition should be preserved as a zero-temperature quantum phase transition.